An Investigation

The following is a letter I wrote to several newspapers in the Eureka area. It has to do with the effort of the Maxxam company to remove the District Attorney for Humboldt County (Paul Gallegos) from office by means of a recall. The vote on the recall was held in 2004. 

I come from Prince George County in southern Maryland, where we have a long history of intense political activism (including, unfortunately, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln). And we are more aware politically than a lot of people in Humboldt County. At least that's what I've come to believe since arriving here two years ago. Let me give an example of why.

Last summer I became very interested in the Gallegos/Maxxam situation and asked a lot of people about their view of the recall. Time and again, I heard things like, "You know, I have good feelings about Gallegos and not so good ones about Maxxam, but when law enforcement people say that a DA is soft on crime, I have to listen to them." After hearing this kind of statement many times, I did some research. The research brought me to the press releases from the Humboldt County Deputy Sheriffs' Association and the Eureka Police Officers' Association in support of the recall. And to the conviction that the press releases were at the core of people's impression that Gallegos is soft on crime.

I attempted to contact the two "peace officers' organizations" to ask for the facts upon which their press releases were based. I first called the "Humboldt County Deputy Sheriffs' Association" and got a recording asking me to leave my name and number and warning that it might be a while before the call was returned, since the "organization's" voice mail "is not checked regularly." I left a message, stating that I wanted more information on the statements made by the "sheriff's association." I ended up leaving three such messages over a week's time. No one ever returned my calls. (I also stated in the messages that I was a journalist doing a story on the recall. I even left the name of my editor's publication on the assumption that a press connection would result in a reasonably prompt return to my phone call. In PG, that's what the press gets from any legitimate organization.)

My experience with the Eureka Police Officers' Association was simpler. That "organization" doesn't have a listing in any telephone book.

I did further research and got some names/numbers of representatives of the "peace officers' associations" in the sheriff's office and in the Eureka police department. (Again, I am totally amazed: Humboldt County allows deputies and police officers to organize against its DA from the offices of its law enforcement agencies?)

I got more recordings and left more messages. No one returned my calls.

I talked to police officers and deputies. A few of them refused to talk to me. As to the rest of them, none of them were members of the "organizations." With one exception, none of them completely agreed with the press releases. Some of them felt that in fact the streets were safer since Gallegos' arrival at the DA's office.

Back to Prince George County, Maryland. "Two guys and a dog." This is what we call "organizations" brought into being for the purpose of manipulating public opinion. It's an old trick and only really corny people try it anymore in PG. When they do, folks there refer to such an organization as "two guys and a dog."

I could do more research on this topic, no doubt, and maybe it would establish that each of the "peace officer's associations" is legitimate. But I feel that I've done a reasonable amount of work for the purpose of drawing a reasonably accurate opinion as to why a lot of people in this county think that Gallegos is soft on crime: "two guys and a dog." Well, give the devil his due: four guys and two dogs.